Friday, 25 February 2011

The C Team hosted the dedicated under 18s of Ashton Community Chess Club on 23 February 2011, and only Mike's win on board 2 saved a whitewash. Well done Mike. In a year or two it may well be the A Team whom Ashton visit. East Cheshire C 1, Ashton 4.

Friday, 18 February 2011

In a close contest the C Team scored a near win against Stockport D last night (Thursday 17 February 2011). The scorecard (below) involved only integers this time ...Stockport D.....................East Cheshire C1....D. Preen........0...1......B. Tait2....J. Kelly..........0...1......G. Clarke3....M. Jackson...1....0.....M. Cunnane4....I. Anderson ..1....0.....I. Vaughan5....A. Prime.........0...1.....A. BuckleyTOTALS.............2....3

Wednesday, 16 February 2011

East Cheshire A kept their promotion drive on track with a 3.5 - 2.5 victory at Altrincham.

Graham lost a game he could have won and Dave N won a game he should have lost so in the end the luck cancelled out and our strength showed.

1. John Reed 1-0 Y Kolodiy (160)

Is the Queen's Gambit Exchange Variation a forced win for White? John thinks so and here is more evidence. John bashed out his first 15 moves in about 5 minutes and ultimately had to apologise for knowing the opening so well. Kolodiy played actively but got ground down.

2. Graham Ball 0-1 K Lockett (159)

Graham appeared to have a slightly dodgy opening (too many pawn moves on the Kingside maybe?) but played actively and created some nasty threats. He appeared to be winning but then allowed Karl a mating attack.

3. Phil Ramsey 1-0 N Lowe (148)

I played a Reti / Catalan hybrid and Nick seemed rather unsure what to do against it. After 20 moves Nick had used nearly all his time and he then collapsed in the middlegame complications.

4. Dave Newall 1-0 R Clucas (UG)

Dave played his favourite Accelerated Dragon and got a very nice position from the opening with pressure on White's queenside pawns. However he then blundered a piece but still managed to win by pushing his central passed pawns.

5. Alan Stokes 0-1 T Tomkins (131)

Alan played a very patient English opening but finally lost his Queen and the game.

6. Dave Broadbent 0.5-0.5 D Hughes (130)

Dave played the French Defence and quickly assumed the initiative with a kingside attack. However David defended well and eventually managed to block off the whole board!

Thursday, 10 February 2011

Last night ECA played Holmes Chapel at home in the semi finals of the Charnley Cup. As expected we were heavily out graded but we went down fighting, losing 4-2 in the end.

1. Graham Ball 0-1 P Bennett (190)

Graham was gradually ground down as he took on Patrick's Pirc defence. In a typical Pirc game Graham set up a big pawn centre and Patrick systematically dismantled it.

2. Phil Ramsey 0-1 J Turner (182)

The problem with the Sicilian defence is that you often come up against someone's pet anti-Sicilian system which they have been playing for twenty years! So it was last night as John played an obscure system I had not encountered before and I fell into an opening trap which left me virtually lost after ten moves or so. Back to the books for me.

In the unlikely event that anyone is interested in this trap a similar game can be found here. I unwittingly followed it for 13 moves before playing the inferior 14. ... b5 and doing even worse than the Black player in that game.

3. Dave Newall 0.5-0.5 M Hancock (181)

Playing against another Pirc Defence Dave played solidly and had his draw offer accepted in the middle game.

4. Dave Broadbent 0-1 I Bates (170)

Ian played the Tarrasch against Dave's French Defence and a wild game ensued where Dave had an extra pawn but had his King stuck in the centre. Ian played accurately in the end to finish Dave off.

5. David Taylor 0.5 - 0.5 A Raeburn (157)

Playing his favourite Reti David played solidly, swapped off the pieces and got the draw.

6. Keven Holton 1-0 M Roberts (139)

Keven gave the Sicilian a try and it seemed to work - leaving him three pawns up in the middlegame. Keven duly converted the full point.

So as expected we struggled on the top boards and did better at the bottom. Sadly even if Dave B had won we would have lost the match due to their wins being on higher boards but still it was a good performance.

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

This was the C Team's first visit to Macclesfield's new venue. Unfortunately the Captain (who is that person?) had forgotten to tell everyone that the Club now meets at the Liberal Club on Boden Street, which accounted for boards 1 and 2 finishing later on in the evening, with Geoff and Paul having arrived by the scenic route.The match was one of two halves not only chronologically, but also scoreologically, with Ian, Andy and Roy accumulating 2.5 points between them before Paul and Geoff had hardly sat down. Paul and Geoff were left to it, in the knowledge we could not lose. Needless to say, Macclesfield were set on not conceding any more points, and achieved the draw, late into the night, with at least one of those games going to the wire with only minutes on each clock. Thanks to Geoff for doing the score card.Scores:Board1 P. Bamford 0 1 J.P. Taylor (139)2 G. Clarke 0 1 R. Murphy (126)3 I. Vaughan 1 0 P. Jones (50)4 A Buckley 1 0 E. Nathan (50)5 R Burrows 0.5 0.5 A Howe (50)Totals 2.5 2.5